Joe Irons
Joe Irons is the best friend and confidant of Pete Stanchek, a psionic of extraordinary power and potential. Skeptical of Pete’s new friends at the Harbinger Foundation, a non-profit organization that helps people with special abilities and talents by providing them with an environment where they can achieve their full potential, Joe tries to warn Pete, but he ignores his advice as simple jealousy. Joe’s suspicions ultimately cost him his life, and his death allows Pete to see the truth. =The Beginning= On February 17th 1991, Joe Irons and his best friend, Pete Stanchek, made their way across the school parking lot when Joe asked Pete if he received an answer to a letter he wrote to the Harbinger Foundation. As Pete replied that he was still waiting and expressed doubts about their legitimacy, Joe stopped to tie his shoe and asked him if he wanted to go down to the dump and practice his powers. While Pete gazed across a fence at Kris Hathaway, the most popular girl in school, he told Joe that he was going home. With a grin, Joe patted Pete and told him that guys like them could never get girls like Kris, but, as he walked away, Pete said that he could. Four days later, Joe jokingly accused Pete of staring at Kris through the entire class and dared him to ask her out, when then Pete told him that he was just about to do and walked over to her. When Pete asked Kris to go out with him on Saturday she intended to reject his invitation, but then his eye gleamed and, after she slurred for a moment, she told him that she would love to go out with him. Much to her friend's wonderment, Kris then took Pete's hand in hers and they walked away together, while Joe expressed his disbelief. After school, Joe saw Pete get into a limo with Rachel Hopson, a foundation recruiter, and called him out, but he ignored him and left. Two months later in Pete’s house, Joe told him that he had become a jerk and warned him that the Harbinger people were bad news, but Pete accused him of being jealous and lonely because he had a life and a girlfriend. As Pete left to go wait for Rachel,Eel and Weasel, two members of the Eggbreakers, a group of young Harbingers who acted as enforcers of Toyo Harada, the most powerful Harbinger on Earth and founder of the Harbinger Foundation, Joe went after him. When Joe accused Pete of doing whatever they told him and forcing Kris to be his girlfriend, Weasel shoved him and left him crying on the ground, while Rachel got Pete in the car and they left. That night, Rachel killed Joe at Toyo’s behest, and when Pete found his body, he ran to Harada looking for help, but later, as his suspicions about the foundation grew, Rachel went to his room at the Harbinger complex in Pittsburgh to kill him. After Pete’s subconscious mind saved him, he rescued Kris from Eel and Weasel and they ran away together. Category: Harbinger Category: Characters